The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

THE CHICAMA RIVER, DEPARTMENT OF LA LIBERTAD.

CHAPTER XXII
TRUJILLO AND THE CHICAMA VALLEY

HUACO DEL SOL, TRUJILLO.

As the valley of the Nile became the seat of Egyptian civilization when all the rest of Africa was in barbarism, so, in the western world, the valleys of the coast region of Peru formed the centre of social and industrial development at a period more remote than is indicated by existing evidences of any other culture on the South American continent. In the primitive history of mankind it is under the most favorable conditions of soil and climate that the greatest social development is to be traced, and in no part of the world had the simple child of nature apparently less to fear from the elements or more to hope from the beneficent earth than in these smiling valleys. There is no doubt that in ancient times the irrigation of this extensive area was more general and its desert tracts were fewer than at present; and the efforts of the Peruvian government, now directed toward a scientific investigation of the subsoil of this region, aim especially to discover, if possible, some means of restoring these sources of moisture, which were once sufficiently abundant for the fertilization of a vast realm inhabited by a population many times in excess of what it is at present.

Trujillo occupies the site on which flourished, long before the advent of the Incas, the rich and powerful capital of the Chimus. Their palaces and temples were spread over a great extent of territory, and the ruins of their culture are to be seen in all the valleys of this part of Peru. Whether the earliest builders of these prehistoric piles were the Chimus or a still more ancient race has not been determined: but in the neighborhood of Trujillo and in the valleys of Chicama, Santa Catalina, and others, exist to this day evidences of an architecture of very great antiquity, and of such a character as could only have been produced by an intelligent and cultivated people. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Incas had gained the ascendancy in the valley of Chimu, extending some two hundred leagues along the coast from Tumbes southward, but its tribes were by no means willing allies of the sovereign of Cuzco. When the Spaniards appeared, they were welcomed as superior beings sent by heaven to avenge the injuries which the subjects of the powerful Chimu Canchu—The Grand Chimu—had suffered at the hands of Pachacutec’s son, the Prince Yupanqui.

GALLERY OF THE PALACE OF JUSTICE, TRUJILLO.

According to colonial records, a small Spanish settlement already existed on the site of the present city of Trujillo when Pizarro arrived from Lima in 1535. Don Miguel de Estete, commissioned by Almagro the year previous to find a suitable location for a town, had chosen this place and settled a colony there. Pizarro approved and confirmed the settlement already established, and formally founded the city of Trujillo, giving it the name of his native town in Spain. The Intendencia of Trujillo was defined at the same time to cover, not only the present Department of La Libertad, but those of Lambayeque, Piura, Cajamarca, and Amazonas. In 1537, the title of city was conferred on Trujillo under the royal seal of the Emperor Charles V. and his mother, the Queen Joana, and from the earliest days of its history the municipality has been honored with the dignity of “Very Illustrious Corporation of the City of Trujillo.” Throughout the period of the viceroyalty, it was one of the most important centres of colonial industry; many noble families had their estates in its fertile valleys, and their descendants still retain possession. The people of Trujillo are very proud of their ancestry, and conserve the courtly manner and inherent grace distinctive of old Castile. Peruvians enjoy repeating, at the expense of this hidalgo spirit, the humorous saying that “the bones of Don Quixote lie interred in the Plaza of Trujillo.” There is an atmosphere of refinement in the social life of the place that is as charming as it is simple and genuine. Pride of race has proved no disadvantage to Trujillo, whose people have other claims than heredity on which to rest their merits.